YOUR CART

week 113) 27 February 2014 12-Step Study Big Book Workshop AA 12 x 12 Step 2 page 31 from the start of the paragraph: ‘Now let’s take the guy full of faith…’ until end of next paragraph: ‘…What, then, can be the matter?’

How to inventory [boiling down the 4th step into very quick easy way].When you are blaming someone else. Stop. Be quiet inside.Write the prayer: God help me to see the truth.Then ask:

God where am I being selfish?

[Selfish means you want a situation and everybody to do things your way)

2. What’s my action plan to be of service to you God and others?That is faith that works. A faith without works is dead.Prayer for when not willing to pay the price of being humble.[Definition of humility: looking at ourselves honestly and truthfully].Dear God, Help me to be willing to be willing. Amen.

Soul work

look up: recriminate

Q1. What was the last impossible situation in your life? Did you accept it calmly or did you create a huge crisis and chaos for yourself and everyone around you?

Q2. Who in your circle have you seen accept impossible situations calmly, trusting and relying upon God? Q3. Are you truly willing to let God call the shots no matter what results?​Q4. Write examples of when you were willing to let God run the show. And examples of when not willing. ​

AA 12 x 12 Step 2 page 31, from the start of the paragraph:�When we encountered AA, the fallacy of our defiance was revealed…�until �We saw them meet and transcend their other pains and trials.�

At the start of the previous paragraph:�As psychiatrists have often observed, defiance is the outstanding characteristic of many an alcoholic.�Write your name above the words �an alcoholic�.

When we encountered AA, the fallacy of our defiance was revealed.Write the word �lie� above the word �fallacy�.

Soul work

look up: fallacy, defiance, reliance, transcend.

When we encountered AA, the fallacy of our defiance was revealed.Q1. Define what they are talking about.

At no time had we asked what God�s will was for usQ2a. Has the truth of your defiance been revealed?b) If so, are you still acting in a defiant way?

Q3a. This week did you deny that you were at the end of yourself?b) What did you try to control this week knowing you had no control?

Q4. How did it work for you taking back your will instead of asking for God�s will?Take it to meditation and then write on it.At no time had we asked what God�s will was for us; instead we had been telling Him what it ought to be.

Q5. This week how many of you told God how it ought to be? How many of you shook your fist at God, were mad at God?

Q6. No man [or woman], we saw, could believe in God and defy Him too.Write on this.Thy will not mine be done.​Q7. In meditation you are invited to be reliant, which is recovery, and the opposite of defiance which is being in the disease. In meditation ask how you can be more reliant on the Higher Power of your understanding.

AA 12 x 12 Step 2 page 3, the entire paragraph which starts with:‘As psychiatrists have often observed, defiance is the outstanding characteristic of many an alcoholic…’’ ending with ‘Damn this faith business!’ we said.

Website: www.164andMore.comA member kindly shared the above website which publishes a book where every sentence in the Big Book (pp.1-164) and the 12 x 12 is indexed alphabetically.

The God of my understanding.This Big Book study workshop is a 12-step group, not a religious group. Stephanie would like us to use the words ‘the God of my understanding’ when sharing. This is not disrespectful. We leave the naming our God to outside of the rooms because we want unity and we cannot have one group calling God one thing and another group calling God another. She accepts all of us wherever we are and wants us all to allow others the dignity of finding their God as we allowed her the dignity to find her’s.

Soul worklook up: defiance.

The Set Aside prayer is probably the most important of prayers.

Q1. Are you willing to put aside everything you think you know about yourself, about your life, about the influence your past life has had on you today and the God of your understanding? Are you willing to live in this moment with a changed attitude?

Q2. If you do not have joy peace and serenity, there is a lie you are telling yourself.What is the lie you are telling yourself?

‘…defiance is the outstanding characteristic of many an alcoholic’.

Q3. Write on this sentence.a) Are you defying God right now with your attitude? a.Are you defying God with your attitude of phony respectability?

So it’s not strange that lots of us have had our day at defying God Himself. Sometimes it’s because God has not delivered us the good things of life which we specified, as a greedy child makes an impossible list for Santa Claus.

Q4. Is that what you are bringing into your Quiet Time?Self-righteousness, the very thing that we had contemptuously condemned in others, was our own besetting evil. This phony form of respectability was our undoing.’

Q5. Are you going to God with a list, maybe even unconsciously, because you deserve it? [‘I deserve it, I deserve it,’ rather than ‘thank you, thank you.’]

Q6. Turn around each of the sentences below and ask yourself: Am I doing this?a.More often, though, we had met up with some major calamity, and to our way of thinking lost out because God deserted us.b) The girl we wanted to marry had other notions; we prayed God that she’d change her mind, but she didn’t.c) We prayed for healthy children, and were presented with sick ones, or none at all.d) We prayed for promotions at business, and none came.d) Loved ones, upon which we heartily depended, were taken from us by so-called ‘acts of God.’e) Then we became alcoholics, and asked God to stop that. But nothing happened. This was the unkindest cut of all. Damn this faith business!” we said.

AA 12 x 12 Step 2 page 30 entire paragraph starting:�Another crowd of AA�s says: We were plumb disgusted with religion and all its works…� until end of paragraph �…But finally, driven to AA, we learned better.�

** Welcome to Debbie our new computer volunteer who has stepped up to help put the recordings on the callbacks and websites!! Thank you Debbie for your service and getting our meetings to us!!

Re. placing humility before intellect:You cannot be too stupid to get sober, but you can be too smart. God gave us brains so that He could use them. Soul work�This phony form of respectability was our undoing, so far as faith was concerned.� look up phony, respectability.�By their example they showed us that humility and intellect could be compatible, provided we placed humility first. When we were able to do that, we received the gift of faith a faith which works. This faith is for you, too.�

Q1a) Using your own experience, write a summary of what the above words mean. b) Give two examples from your life when you have placed humility first.

Q2a) What does receiving the gift of faith mean to you – a white light experience?

Does it mean you want to do your Quiet Time?

Does it mean when you walk near the street of addiction, you will ask God for help?

​Q3. This faith is for you too.

What do you think about that?

Do you think that everybody is able to get faith?

How would you talk to someone who is totally clueless, about your faith and how you use it in recovery?

Our live phone meetings are every Thursday at 8:00 AM EST. The phone number for these live meetings is (712) 775-7031, and the meeting ID number is 714744988#.

Please send donations to support the website to:

Stephanie Whiting P O Box 531 North Pembroke MA 02358

You can listen to our recorded meetings at (641) 715-3900, pin 95666# for our Thursday Big Book Step Study workshop. You can also hear our Tuesday Big Book Study recordings at (641) 715-3900, pin 298913#. These meetings can be accessed at any time.